


The Waters and The Wild

by twobirdsonesong



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Disney References, Established Relationship, Fishing, M/M, Merman Kurt, Ocean, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 04:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twobirdsonesong/pseuds/twobirdsonesong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine, a lowly fisherman, has a secret place where he meets his love, Kurt, a merman prince.  But one day Kurt is late for their rendezvous.</p><p>ETA: <a href="http://heavenorspace.tumblr.com/post/55205641347/merman-kurt-and-fisherman-blaine-share-a-private">mer!Kurt and fisherman!Blaine by heavenorspace</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Waters and The Wild

**Author's Note:**

> So, what happened here is that I got a prompt for mute!Kurt, but I somehow read it as mer!Kurt. The prompt included a character named Eric and my brain went, "duh, Prince Eric!" Basically, I accidentally wrote some merman!Kurt. Oops? Sorry to the person who prompted me. I'm still gonna try mute!Kurt. At some point.

They have a spot – a cove – small and secluded away that no one else from Blaine’s bustling fishing village knows about.  Where the water stays warm and calm and the sun sparkles across the clean sand and no one bothers them at all.  Blaine likes it there because he can strip off without worry and slide into the welcoming water.  He knows where the rocks rest, in the shallows near the edge, where he can sit.  And Kurt can pull himself out of the water with those long, strong arms of his to drape himself luxuriously along the sun-warm outcropping.  And they can finally be eye-level with each other without strain.

 

Their cove is a decent ways away from Blaine’s hut on the beach, but he has his own rowboat and he enjoys the pull of his muscles under sun-darkened skin and the scrape of the wooden oars against his calloused palms.  And of course, there’s the delicious anticipation of seeing Kurt once again.

 

They meet as often as they can, as long as the fickle weather holds.  But Blaine has his life on land – his work and his family – where Kurt can’t come.  And Kurt has his duties in the palace deep down under the glittering surface of the ocean where Blaine can’t follow.  The cove isn’t the farthest Blaine would have to travel to be with Kurt.

 

It’s another beautiful day, but Kurt isn’t there yet when Blaine drags his little boat up onto the sand.  Sometimes, when he’s rowing, and the sun is setting pink and gold on the horizon, and all he can hear is the comforting lap of the waves and the gentle wind in the tall palm trees on the shore, he dreams about taking Kurt out on the boat.  He imagines singing Kurt a little song, and Kurt humming along, and maybe he’ll bring a basket of treats for them both.  And he can cast anchor way out from the shore and they can watch the dolphins swim around them and they can just be together for a while.  But he doesn’t think Kurt would want to, or if it would even work.  Kurt can be very self-conscious about how he looks out of water.  Sitting on benches is hard for a merman, and his scales dry out after too long.

 

Sometimes Kurt is early, already out of the water and sunning himself on the outcropping, showing off the iridescent glimmer of his sleek scales.  He likes the heat of the sun and the rock, how it melts into his pale skin and warms him down to his bones.  Kurt’s hair is streaked with green and blue and Blaine loves how the highlights are brighter when the thick strands are dry.  Stretched on the rocks, Kurt is long and lean, and the powerful muscles of his tail shift underneath his scales.  The scales are smooth under Blaine’s fingertips, but the edges can be sharp.

 

Other times Kurt’s still in the water when Blaine rows up to the cove, chasing fish and flicking water at gulls with his fins.  He’ll swim up along Blaine’s boat and nudge him off course with an impish smirk before diving away from Blaine’s reaching hands.

 

But Kurt’s not there yet, and Blaine can tell by the position of the sun in the sky above him that he didn’t get there too early.  He waits for Kurt, sitting on the beach and watching the horizon.

 

Blaine can only see Kurt coming because of the subtle shimmer of his blue and green scales under the water.  And he knows what it is because he’s seen it many times before, knows what to look for now.  Kurt leaves no ripple on the surface and no wake behind him.  It’s how Kurt snuck up on him when they first met.

 

Kurt doesn’t come out of the water and up onto his outcropping this time.  Instead, he circles the rock Blaine usually sits on and curls his powerful tail under himself, allowing him to perch half out of the water.  He pushes his wet hair out of his face and doesn’t look at Blaine, but Blaine can see Kurt’s gills flutter briefly before his chest rises and falls with his first breath.

 

He can tell by the set of Kurt’s strong shoulders and the tightness in his jaw that he’s angry, but Blaine doesn’t know why.  He can’t think of anything he’s done recently that might have upset Kurt.  But Kurt is a proud creature, and prickly sometimes.  Blaine sighs and stands, brushes the sand from his body, and crosses the cove towards Kurt.

  
“I didn’t think you were coming today,” Blaine says, sitting down on the outcropping Kurt usually occupies.  His bare feet dangle in the warm water.

           

“Well, I wasn’t sure if you were going to have the time,” Kurt responds and his tone is sharp, clipped.  “For me.”

 

“What?”  Blaine frowns.  He only ever wants to have _more_ time for Kurt.  It’s not either of their faults that they are who they are.

 

“I saw you.  With the other one.”  Kurt’s pink gills flare with anger.  “The other _man_.”  He spits the word ‘man’ like it tastes foul to him.

  
“Eric?”

 

“Oh, is that his name?” Kurt shrugs with a casualness Blaine knows he doesn’t feel.  “He’s rather – what’s the word you use?  Handsome.”

 

“Kurt.”  Blaine wishes Kurt would look at him, but his eyes are cast down at his clenched hands.

 

“It’s fine.  He _is_ a prince, you know.  I mean, so am _I_.  But he also has what I don’t.”

 

And there it is, the thing they don’t talk about.  There are ways to change their fate, Blaine knows, dark and dangerous magic, but there’s a price to pay.  There always is.  And there are no guarantees.  Blaine’s been thinking about it, weighing the costs and the gains, but it doesn’t feel like the right time to say what he wants to do.

 

“Kurt.”

 

Kurt looks up then.  “What?”

 

“He’s just been wanting some help learning how to fish.”

 

Blaine watches the shift of emotions across Kurt’s face, the scrunch of his nose as he thinks.

 

“Why would he want that?  He has people like you to do it for him.”

 

Blaine doesn’t even flinch.  He’s used to Kurt’s occasional, pointed bluntness, and he knows his place in the kingdom.  The fact that he sells fish to make a living doesn’t bother him.  It’s who he is.

 

“One in a station as low as mine doesn’t question the wants and desires of the royalty,” Blaine says, shrugging.

 

“You were still spending an awful lot of time with him,” Kurt picks peevishly at his fingernails, touches his hair.  “Too much.”

 

“He’s a prince.  He asked for assistance learning how to fish.  I think he’s been a little bored, up in the grand palace of marble and silk, and it’s sort of what I’m good at.  And people like him tend to get what they want.”  Blaine grins, trying to lighten the mood.  But Kurt’s eyes darken.

 

“And did he also want _you_?”

 

Blaine swallows.  He hadn’t realized that Kurt had been so upset about the time he’d been spending with Prince Eric.  Blaine finally slides of the outcropping and into the water, moving towards Kurt.  He can see the way Kurt’s eyes – the same color as his scales – rove over his bare chest and down his body.  His gills flutter a little.  Blaine wades up to Kurt, right up close where he can see every detail in his scales and the freckles that dot his bare chest.

 

“Kurt,” Blaine says.  “No.”

 

“No?” Kurt cocks his head a little and his eyes are shining in the sunlight.

 

“Eric has found himself a pretty little princess whom he’ll be making his wife as soon as he can.”  Blaine wants to touch Kurt, to feel the warmth of soft skin and the coolness of smooth scales.  “I’m quite certain he’ll forget all about the poor little fisherman he made teach him how to throw a net for a few weeks.”

 

Kurt almost bares his sharp little teeth at his words.  “No one should forget about you.”

 

Blaine grins.  “But that leaves me all for you.”

 

Kurt’s gills flutter a little again, a subtle movement at his long neck.  “Perhaps some of us could lure your prince into the depths.  Show him what the sea is really full of.”

 

“He’s not my-”

 

The rest of his sentence is cut off as Kurt ducks in for a kiss.  He tastes of clean water and his hands are warm as they clasp Blaine’s face.  Blaine sucks in a breath and angles up for a deeper taste.  He loves how Kurt smells of salt and ocean and sand.

 

Kurt slips off the rock and into the water without a sound and Blaine barely feels the ripple of water against belly.  Kurt’s long arms wrap around Blaine’s body, pulling him down under the surface of the sea.  Blaine goes lax in Kurt’s embrace and lets Kurt guide them.

 

Blaine had been afraid the first time Kurt pulled him under the water.

 

“It’ll be fine,” Kurt had said moments before they’d slipped under the surface.  Blaine had let Kurt take his hand and walk him into deeper and deeper water.  “Trust me.  I won’t let you drown.”  And then they’d gone completely under.

 

Blaine panicked, naturally, as his chest began to tighten with the need to breathe.  And then Kurt, smiling so sweetly, had pulled him close – arms tight around his shoulders and tail strong against Blaine’s legs – and sealed their mouths together.  Blaine had jerked, struggling, and then he’d felt it – sweet air pushing into his mouth and down into his lungs.  His hands had fluttered up, touching the soft, tender skin around Kurt’s gills, feeling the gentle pulsing in the flesh as he breathed for them both.

 

After that, Blaine found himself eager to dive deeper and deeper beneath the waves, down where he’d never been able to go before.

 

Blaine lets one hand rest on Kurt’s waist and clasps the other around his neck as they twist languidly through the warm water.  He can’t see it, but he knows the sun is still dappling across the surface of the sea.  It’s a kiss and it’s not, it’s breath and life and every ounce of trust Blaine has.

 

He wants to say it – _I love you and I’ll change everything for you_ – but Kurt’s mouth is on his and he’s breathing the very air into Blaine’s lungs.

 

It can wait a little longer.


End file.
